Ok, so are we enjoying the ride so far? We’re taking this week to wrap up all of the notable goodies from 2009. As you may know we publish a weekly (SEO Geeks) newsletter which has the top stories/posts each week. This series is simply some of what I felt were the more notable entries from ’09.

Today we’re looking at the top News items as well as Local/Social Search and tools items. Once more, there is no science here, I am simply putting forth those that were either informative, entertaining or otherwise notable from the past 12 months.

The News of SEO 2009

While there’s always a TON of news out there… I am going to limit it to those we felt worth talking about. Once more, they’re in no particular order, chronological if anything. Enjoy!

Bing This!

The Launch of Bing was a big story early on…. They even managed to hang in with the PR machine that is Google for a time there. At this point, things seemed to have died down and until BingHoo comes full circle, Google remains unfazed.

Nofollow Madness

Nofollow madness – And of course how can we forget the day nofollow died? Well, it died 10 months before we heard about it actually (DOH). This one, like 'SEO is dead/sucks' seems to still be hanging around... I don't expect that to change in 2k10.

SEO Crimminals

Was one of the ‘SEO sucks/is dead’ related stories. There’s always a few of these each year right? To get started see the Android Phones For Links SMX Advanced 2009 - which is the actual video of Matt fielding the now infamous links for phones brew ha ha

BingHoo! Coming to a browser near you?

It’s official; Microsoft and Yahoo make a deal – what we know now has been a not-so-hot story, was the announcement that BingHoo was a done deal… or was it? Seems the story still has legs and we’ll see what happens in 2k10

SEOs Speak

75% of SEOs Feel Google Loves Keywords in the URL – is the result from one of Barry’s polls at Search Engine Roundtable. I find this one interesting in that anchor text probably plays into it as much as an actual valuation of the KW in the URL. Not huge news, just something I thought worth including.

Google Caffeine

Obviously one of the biggest stories was Google announceing an infrastructure update. This one is reminiscent of the Big Daddy update…What any of this will mean in practical terms, shall play out as this year rolls along.

SEO standards suck!

Much like it’s cousin, “SEO is Dead” it seems every so often we simply have to gravitate back to the discussions of SEO standards/ethics/best practices and that time is upon us once more. Oe has to wonder if we’ll ever come to a conclusion on it… either way, the discussions are productive for the most part…

What makes a good SEO – not to be left out of the fun, Michael also weighs in on our industry without standards and what constitutes a true SEO. For the record, I am somewhat more in this camp. I have variances in my ‘fa’ – but it’s well said.

Steve catches a frauder – and to keep us reminded of WHY it’s needed watch this vid where a poor unsuspecting SEO crap-hat sales person gets a ride from savvy SEO geek.. can U say, “Google pixel fire’? My fav term for the year! Here's the Vid (scary AND funny)

Nofollow fall out

Nofollow fall out – The debate raged on later in the year even after Google stating it was depreciated, (and does to this day actually). For the record I've always been more of a fan of structural PageRank management and messing with the NF tag.

Google nukes PR from WMT

WOW…. Could this be part of something more on the horizon? We were talking about this at the SEO Dojo and one has to wonder if it’s the beginning of the end for the ToolBar PageRank data? Will it happen though is another question... One can dream.

Google Social Search experiment

When the news broke last week of Google’s Social Search experiment going live, I thought, ‘this has got to be the big story of the year’. At the end of the day I’d say, maybe/maybe not. This one really looks like, 'just another vertical' so far. Anyway....

Google; page load speed a ranking factor(?)

Site speed may soon affect Google rankings – WTF? This was a VERY interesting development and an oddity from an IR perspective for sure. Oh, and before peeps go crazy, this really can’t be a heavily weighted signal, so don’t get anal – m’kay?

Personalized search starts freaking out SEOs

When the news broke on that Google was now personalizing ALL the results, not just those of people that are logged in, started an all-to-familiar echo in my ears. I could hear it already, ‘Rankings are dead’ – ‘Everyone sees a different SERP’ and the like. Fortunately, it didn’t get too out of hand… (this corner was screaming ‘relax’ from anyone who’d have me on)

Google does Real Time

Back when Google announced their partnership with Twitter we wondered what they’d be using it for. The social search experiment didn’t seem like it was the entire reason… Then came the ‘real time’ results. Much like it’s brethren, social search, the response was somewhat less than enthusiastic.

Obviously there was a TON of other interesting news, these are the ones that caught my eye from the year past. While I welcome deeper search developments such as RTS and Social, I'd REALLY like to see less on the 'SEO sucks/is dead' front.. And if we're going to talk about standards/best practices, it would be nice to keep it civil. Actually, I made it through 2009 without actually going off on anyone from a personal level... a first. Maybe we can ALL stop the personal attacks and debate things from a more clinical light? Naw... can't see that one... sigh.

As mentioned off the top, we will continue the journey with some of the best from the world of Local SEO, Social Search, Videos and more from around the blogosphere. And where to all these goodies come from? Well, the SEO Geeks Newsletter of course. Sign up now and get all the best all year long!